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VPN (IPSec) Prompting For Saved Password

Written on February 22nd 2010 at 19:17. Last modified: March 28, 2010

VPN (IPSec) Prompting For Saved PasswordSymptoms:

  • On Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.x) you are prompted to enter your VPN password even though you’ve previously saved it in the keychain
  • You are using IPSec on the built in VPN client on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Explanation:

This is caused by a problem with the Keychain Access item for the VPN IPSec connection.  A two minute fix will sort it out for you.

Solution:

  1. Launch Keychain Access by clicking Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access
  2. On the left upper pane, under Keychains select System
  3. On the left lower, under Category select All Items
  4. On the right side of the screen scroll to the bottom and locate the two items called VPN(IPSec)
  5. Double-click the VPN(IPSec) whos kind is IPSec XAuth Password
  6. Click the Access Control button/tab.  The applications permitted to use this keychain item will be displayed below.  If you’re prompted for your password, enter it.
  7. Click the plus (+) sign
  8. When the Finder window appears, press Cmd + Shift + G on your keyboard
  9. When the Go To Folder dialog appears, enter /usr/libexec
  10. Click Go
  11. When the /usr/libexec folder appears scroll to configd, select it and click Add
  12. Click Save Changes
  13. Close Keychain Access and try connecting to your VPN again

Discussion


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  1. Jan says:
    June 5, 2010 at 17:17

    Thanks a lot! Works great!

    Although you should mentioned that the Item you have to look for in Keychain-Access is only named VPN(IPSec) if you left the network name to the default setting. If you named your connection “SuperSecureVPN” you have to look for “SuperSecureVPN” in your keychain.

    Reply
  2. Steven R. Loomis says:
    July 14, 2010 at 15:17

    Thanks!
    Actually for step 9-11 you can just start typing: /usr/libexec/configd
    When you hit Enter, configd will be selected.

    Reply
  3. alex says:
    October 30, 2010 at 04:40

    Thanks so much! Its always been a hassle and annoyance retyping my password multiple times each day! This works great.

    Reply
  4. laughablebutanebob says:
    July 22, 2011 at 06:11

    Thanks.
    I was having the same problem on Lion and this has just fixed it.

    Reply
  5. Steve says:
    February 5, 2012 at 04:41

    Thanks! I have just found this after extensive searching. I’m very grateful for the fix as the need to enter my password each time I connect to VPN has been annoying me for a long time.

    Reply
  6. Howard says:
    March 21, 2012 at 11:43

    This also worked for a fellow who changed his password. The vpn server could not be found thereafter. Following this script got the vpn working again.

    Reply
  7. Mike Petonic says:
    March 30, 2012 at 16:31

    Hmm. I looked throughout my Keychain Access and there is no entry for which “Kind” is “IPSec XAuth Password”. There is a “IPSec Shared Secret”, but no “Xauth Password”. Hmmm. And when I look at the permissions for “IPSec Shared Secret”, it shows its access control set to “Allow all applications to access this item”. I am running Lion 10.7.3.

    Thanks!

    Reply

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